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tv   All In With Chris Hayes  MSNBC  May 9, 2017 12:00am-1:01am PDT

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republicans can only afford to lose two votes if they want to pass their health care replacement bill. as to when we will see anything from the senate? well, that seems see anything before the summer recess. there's talk we'll see something by the midterm elections. and because it's washington, as of tonight, it's all just talk. that's our broadcast for this monday night as we start a new week. thank you for being here with us. good night from new york. tonight on "all in". >> ms. yates, what did you tell the white house about mr. flynn? >> sally yates speaks out. >> we believed that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. >> for the first time ever, former acting attorney general on what she told the white house about michael flynn. >> the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself.
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>> tonight, what we now know about what michael flynn was doing with the russians and why president trump ignored all the warnings. >> president obama had told the incoming president elect that two days after the election, don't hire this guy. >> then, the kushner family caught selling real estate visas and access to the white house, why jared kushner's family is today apologizing with the reporter who broke the story, all of that and plus house republicans feel the heat at home over trump care. >> nobody dies because they don't have access to health care. "all in" starts right now. >> good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes, for the first time today, the person at the center of one of the most extraordinary dramas of the trump administration spoke out publicly. former acting attorney general sally yates telling members of congress that she clearly and repeatedly warned the trump
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white house that it's one time national security adviser michael flynn faced potential blackmail from a hostile russian government. >> we believe that general flynn was compromised with respect to the russians. logic would tell you that you don't want the national security adviser to be in a position where the russians have leverage over it. now, in terms of what impact that may have had or could have had, i can't speak to that. but we knew that that was not a good situation, which is why we wanted to let the white house know about it. >> yates and obama administration hold over and serve as acting attorney general for ten days was fired by trump after refusing to defend his ban of travellers from seven predominantly nations in court. four days after she said she warned the white house that flynn was lying about conversations he had with the russian ambassador, that the russians likely knew about flynn's lies, which are being repeated by vice president mike pence and others. >> not only do we believe that
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the russians knew this, but that they likely had proof of this information. and that created a compromise situation, a situation where the national security adviser, essentially, could be blackmailed by the russians. >> that was not the first warning the trump white house had gotten, as first reported, three former obama administration officials now say that former president obama himself warned president donald trump directly again hiring flynn as his national security adviser. he did that less than 48 hours after the november election from the two -- when the two sat down from a 90-minute conversation in the oval office. trump hired flynn any way and even after yates is warning allowed flynn to remain as national security adviser for another 18 days. a time when he was taking part in classified briefings and even participating in a phone call with the russian president, vladimir putin. trump fired flynn after yates' warning was leaked to the public. in her testimony today alongside
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james clapper, yates said when she warned the white house counsel that flynn was potentially compromised because he had lied to the president, he responded, in part with a question? >> one of the questions that mr. mcgan asked me when i went back over the second day, essentially, why does it matter to d.o.j. if one white house official lies to another white house official. so we explained to him it was a whole lot more than that. every time this lie was repeated and the misrepresentations were getting more and more specific as they were coming out, every time that happened, it increased the compromise. >> the white house has previously sought to plead down yates' warning, both press secretary sean spicer and reince priebus referring to as a heads up. but yates testified today she made clear the gravity of the situation. >> the first meeting occurred on january 26.
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i called don mcgan first thing that morning and told him that i had a very sensitive matter that i needed to discuss with him, that i couldn't talk about it on the phone and that i needed to come see him. >> before the hearing he sent out a tweet that appears to violate federal law prohibiting, ask sally yates under oath if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to white house counsel. senate republicans did the presiden bidding and she denied leaking. they peppered yates and clapper with questions that seemed on the whole design to shift the spotlight away from both flynn and the white house and the underlying question of what they did, including yates' decision not to defend the travel ban and the surveillance of the u.s. citizens. ted cruz, amazingly referenced the scandal around hillary clinton's e-mails. >> have you ever knowingly forwarded classified information to a nongovernment employee on a
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nongovernment computer who did not have authorization to receive that information? >> joining me now, democratic senator sheldon. he's the ranking member on sub crime committee hearing. so senator, the president has offered his own debriefing of what happens today in a series of tweets, one of them saying this was all old news. i've seen that line picked up and carried forward by a number of outlets that are aligned with the president. is it old news, do we learn anything new today. >> some old news, what we learn today is that the fbi had pred case to send fbi agents into the white house to the international security adviser and when they came back, their report was so concerning to the acting attorney general, but before the
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fbi agents could properly type up the 302 statement, the witness statement report, she got on the phone, the white house counsel said i need to see you right away, i've got something sensitive to discuss and rushed right up that very day to inform them of concerns that the russian government may have welcome promiezed the united states of national security adviser. i mean, you think this would have happened in a third world country. the idea that this happened in the united states is stunning. he is one thing tstruck me as new as well today. the question is what surrounded the interactions between flynn and the russian ambassador, what is the content. what is the senter of all of this, we've got some indication having to play you that and ask for how you understood that testimony, take a listen. >> the first thing we did was to explain to mr. mcgan, the underlying conduct that general
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flynn had engaged in was problematic in and of itself. >> the underlying conduct general flynn had engaged in was problematic, what do you make of that? >> ms. yates would not confirm that she was talking about the conversation between general flynn and the ambassador, that's what everybody understood her to mean and that would rebut the report that is have come out of the white house that the contact between the national security adviser and the russian ambassador was improper, was not improper. so she appeared to find that it was problematic. the white house said it was not improper. so there's one difference just right there. >> your republican colleagues spent a lot of time, some spent some time on the travel ban, others spent time, a lot of time, even the chair that subcommittee lindsey graham on unmasking and so forth. i want to give them the benefit of the doubt and get you to
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respond. can you imagine if you're don mcgan and obama administration acting aj comes over and tells you, we've got transcripts of the conversation and international security adviser, while you might be a little spooked or worried about the possible political use of intelligence. >> i think your first thought ought to be, what are the national security ramifications of this. the fact that after this meeting, after sally yates came over and we learned today for the first time that she didn't just come over once, she was brought back the following day to further explain herself and even after all of that they, apparently, took no steps whatsoever to limit general flynn's access to highly sensitive meetings to classified information. he remained a fully operated member of the trump establishment for 18 days, despite their knowing that the
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fbi and the department of justice and united states had determined that this was a guy who was likely compromised. >> to that end, i want to play you a flashback, which is the president himself being asked about the earliest reports about flynn, which first appear, if i'm not mistaken on the washington post, he's on the plane and he asked about this. his white house counsel has been briefed on this, he's been communicating about it, this is his reaction, take a look. >> what do you think of the reports that general flynn had conversation with the russians about sanctions? >> i don't know about it. i haven't seen it. what report is that? >> they're reporting that he talked to russia before you inaugurated about sanctions? >> i haven't seen that, i'll look at that. >> february 10th. seems plausible that he was not being truthful there.
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>> well, sean spicer, who generally speaks for the president, said that when he was first briefed on this information, he -- and i'm quoting sean spicer here, immediately went to tell the president what he had heard. >> just to be clear on the timeline, that's many days before that february 10th clip we just played. >> well, immediately, would have been some time after the sally yates meeting on the 24th -- no, the 26th, it would have been. >> that's right. >> so. >> what general flynn appears to have done was lie to the vice president of the united states and he was then fired by the president of the united states for lying to the vice president and yet the conduct by the president would seem to indicate the president thinks he was unfairly the subject of a witch hunt and bears him no hand in this for the fact he lied to the vice president. >> it was kind of peculiar behavior. he lied to more than the vice
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president. he lied to everybody he spoke to and there's a good chance he lied to the fbi in the interview, which would be a violation of section 1,001 a false statement felony for which people can go to prison. that's a lot going on in the white house to have the president been wrap around him this warm embrace of oh, it's not so bad, he's a good guy, nothing serious here. keep on moving, folks, there's nothing going on. it suggest, i don't know what, it suggests that there is some sensitivity to russia in this white house that prevents them from reaching obvious conclusions like my national security adviser may be compromised, let's firewall the guy until we get to the bottom of this and this guy did a lot of really dirty things and may even broken federal law. he's not somebody we need to be defending. i don't know if they're trying to send a signal to him or if they're afraid that he's cooperating or might be cooperating and they want to calm him down.
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i don't know what that is all about. it doesn't make obvious sense. >> finally, james clapper said two interesting things, one, very -- the very beginning of the hearing lindsey graham said have you seen any evidence of collusion, he said, i have not. that has been, ain, taken with and run with by certain outls. he said he did not -- he was unaware of the counter intelligence investigation emanating out of the fbi while he was actually in government, sally yates when asked the same question about have you seen evidence collusion said i can't speak to that without betraying classified information, what did you make of that. >> that's not surprising. the intelligence community inhabits a world where things are deeply classified, but if you have the appropriate clearances, you can get access to them. so i can go into a classified hearing if i have the right clearances and get intelligence information. parallel to that, next to that is the fbi and the department of justice, which has criminal investigative responsibilities.
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and the investigative information is different than just classified information. it can be both, but it's different, so even though i can get a classified briefing, i can't go over to the department of justice and say, hey, tell me about this investigation you've got going on because you want to protect the integrity of the investigation from outside influence. it's perfectly logical that there would be elements at what the fbi is doing in this space that relate more to the criminal side and they would parse some of the material out to the intelligence community if they thought it had intelligence importance. but they wouldn't necessarily tell them about all that's going on. there are a whole lot of reasons why you want to keep the prosecutive part separate and in a separate lane. that's absolutely normal. >> senator sheldon white house, thank you for joining me.
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>> thank you. >> despite many red flags, multiple warnings from even the president himself, president obama, why was michael flynn able to stay on in the trump administration for as long as he did. the unbelievable chain of events after this two-minute break. pressure. i feel it every day. but at night, it's the last thing on my mind. for 10 years my tempur-pedic has adapted to my weight and shape, relieving pressure points from head to toe. so i sleep deeply but feel light. and wake up ready to perform. even with the weight of history on my shoulders. find your exclusive retailr at tempur-pedic.com i got a mortgage offer from the bank today. whuuuuuat? you never just get one offer. go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free! free? yeah. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. pappa's eatin' steak tonight. no.
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we'll take 2! [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the billboard music awards just by using your voice. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. even before general sally yates testified before the committee today, there were numerous red flags about the man that donald trump hired for the most influential national security job in an administration that was still forming. november 10th of last year when president obama sat down with then president elect trump, he warned trump directly against michael flynn who the obama administration fired in 2014 as the head of the defense intelligence agency, because, according to three former obama administration officials, the president obama, believed flynn was not suitable for high level post as national security adviser. a trump administration official said obama's remarks seems like it was made in jest.
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seven days after that, describing how michael flynn was receiving intelligence briefings while advising foreign clients. late last week both the washington post and associated press reported that during the transition trump's own transition team was concerned about flynn's contact with the russian ambassador. sally yates, under oath, said she warned the white house in january that flynn had misled trump officials, including vice president mike flynn about his contacts with the russian ambassador and that the russians knew about it. >> michael flynn did not resign his position until february 13th, that is 18 days after you went over there with the formal warning. and in particular, after they knew about this on january 28th, flynn was allowed to join president trump on an hour long telephone call with russian president vladimir putin.
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do you have any doubt that the information that you conveyed to the white house on january 26th should have been made clear that flynn had been potentially compromised. >> the purpose and our telling them again was so that they can act and convey that information. i would hope they did. >> joining me now is matthew miller who served at the justice department under attorney general eric holder and former u.s. intelligence officer msnbc offered the plot to hack america. let's start with the 18 days, that in some ways remains the strangest part of this entire thing. the acting attorney general gives us warning, nothing happens for 18 days. the only thing ends up precipitating exit are published reports in the press. >> i think we have to ask today after hearing the timeline of events at sally yates laid out where she had these two meetings and phone conversation, one, were they ever going to fire mike flynn if it didn't become public. it's not clear at all they were. they didn't tell the washington post reporter.
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i think have to ask, we thought that sally yates was fired she refused to defend the ban in court. but was it also an excuse to fire her, she was the agitant. by firing her, they made that go away. >> what do you make of -- i have to say as someone who doesn't spend his life intelligence, the idea that there's -- that flynn was compromised because of these calls, is a little hard to get your head around, we're talking about interactions, the content of which we do not know. as someone who is an career intelligence, what does that mean to you. >> i mean, we're talking about as mike flynn being compromised on this one issue, right. there could be many other issues, we're not even talking about turkey, possibly, working for, you know, the russians, you know, after putin had played him to come to russia today. that's an entirely different line of compromise, which could have led to this.
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this one compromise involved the united states kicking out 25 russian intelligence collectors and him picking up the phone and communicating to moscow, right, supposedly independently and it was all supportedly covered up and he lied to mike pence. very hard to believe. the point is -- this is what sally yates was saying today. there is a phone conversation recording done by the russians in a transcript that the russians have in their possession. mike flynn -- >> both sides. >> both sides are on the call. >> by the party line. >> by him lying on the white house, you know, accepting his descriptions of what was going on, he could be blackmailed by moscow. now, that's what she was most concerned with. but there are other factors in here which make it even more compromising. we don't know whether he was turned asset of russia. there's a lot -- >> that's quite a thing to say. >> why would you pick up a phone five times on the same day we're
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kicking out russian spies. was he directed by the president, apparently not. >> and the president later would say, well, i didn't know -- i didn't tell him to do it, had i known he was doing, i would have told him to do it. by the way, that's the official. >> but the worst part about all of this is this is a hair on fire intelligence breach, no matter how you look because, you know, i've been in situation when i was nsa, the person on the same floor as my entire operation, you know, everyone got repolygraphed, everyone was considered an accomplice in this. the white house should be going through full lifestyle polygraph to determine was michael flynn just an individual liar or did he have an accomplice. >> what you heard today and the facts of the matter say to you that she should have been, she comes to the white house and it's total immediate fire alarm in the white house. >> yeah, the white house counsel himself should say, we have to assume a breach. we have to assume everyone
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associated with this is part of this -- we clear everybody. >> and trip to the white house today. >> and it's an extraordinary thing for her to -- and the investigation by the justice department, when she told and again -- and possibly lied to federal and they had this good fellow sort of attitude -- >> nosing around herusins. >> what do you do nosing around
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the business. what's it to you, right, you're justice why are you here in our white house. that's understandable that she would come in there. a good justice department, a good white house counsel, someone who really is looking out for the interest of the united states would immediately say, this is a crisis meeting we're having. >> or protecting your client. i mean, let's not forget about national security issues, if you're the white house counsel, you've got a serious problem who is the president from the legal perspective that you need to get straight. >> this gets to what we don't know what happens in the white house. presumably don recognized the security risk and presumably someone in the white house recognized the political risk. this is enormous which comes out. we don't know whether they went to the president and the president said, you know what, i don't care, i want to keep him any way. >> this is a loyalist white house, right. this is a group of people, again, the good fellas analogy, they don't care. as long as -- it's all amongst us. >> the president coming for marks in the wake of it, that
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flynn got a raw deal. thanks for joining us. >> coming up republicans used today's hearing as an opportunity to grill sally yates on president's trumps original travel plan and sally yates came prepared. that amazing moment after the break.
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>> and given the fact -- and tell the president. >> i can tell you the loyalties and constitution.
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>> two years ago sally yates was repeatedly questioned about her loyalties. but then she did refusing to defend president trump's first travel ban. for that, she was fired and accused of betrayal. then the trump administration itself ended up withdrawing and rewriting the travel ban any way after numerous courts backed yates interpretation ruling it unconstitutional. yet despite that fiasco, republican senator decided to relitigate yates' decision not to defend the order regardless of the recommendation of the office of legal counsel. >> i find it enormously disappointing that you, somehow, vetoed the decision of the office of legal counsel with regard of the lawfulness of the president's order and decided, instead, that you would count erman the executive order of the president of the united states as you happen to disagree with it as policy matter. >> let me make one thing clear, i remember my confirmation hearing in an exchange that i had with you and other of your
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colleagues where you specifically asked me in that hearing that, if the president asked me to do something that was lawful or unconstitutional and one of your colleagues that are would reflect poorly on the department of justice, would i say no. and i looked at this, i made a determination that i believed that it was unlawful, i also thought that it was inconsistent with principles with the department of justice and i said no and that's what i promised you i would do and that's what i did. >> in a fitting ironny of happenstance, the very same time that sally yates was defending her decision on president trump's first travel ban, trump's revised travel ban faced its first hearing before the circuit court of appeals where judge after judge asked acting solicitor general about statements about statements during the presidential campaign and afterward in which trump talked about a travel ban.
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to resurrect the administration's policy in full, the justice department will have to win and its upcoming appeal of the hawaii ruling at the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit or persuade the supreme court to intervene. still ahead, he went from being one of the most respected intelligence officers of his time to being, potentially, compromised by russia, exactly what happened to general michael flynn, that's next. my daughter . ...studying to be a dentist and she gave me advice. she said dad... ... go pro with crest pro-health. 4 out of 5 dentists confirm these crest pro-health products... &help maintain a professional clean. crest pro-health... ...really brought my mouth... ...to the next level. go pro with crest pro-health
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[ inhales, exhales ] [ announcer ] cigarettes are not just dangerous when they're smoked. [ rat squeaking ] they're dangerous long after. cigarette butts are toxic. they release chemicals that poison our water... and harm wildlife. and millions... are polluting our environment. [ sniffing ] [ seagulls squawking ] the underlying conduct that general flynn had engaged in was
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problematic in and of itself. my knowledge of his underlying conduct is based on classified information and so i can't reveal what that underlying conduct is. >> the man president obama personally warned donald trump not to hire general michael flynn, a decorated military veteran with some counter intelligence, he rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming the director of the defense intelligence agency in 2012, he was fired two years later. the former senior official said after the army failed to follow guidance from superiors. after that flynn's remarkable career trajectory took a different attack. he appeared on tv, spoke at the gala and had dinner with vladimir putin. he became one of donald trump's top aids and advisers. as washington post put it last year, he was one of the most respected intel officers of his generation, now he's leading lock her up chants. join me now is national security
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analyst, former deputy assistant secretary of defense of russia, anformer deputy director defense intelligence agency, michael flynn for about a month. let me start with you, the arc of michael flynn is very difficult to put together, reporting about his career, the work he did in afghanistan is -- how do you understand this, man. >> it's to many of us in the intelligence community and who knew mike flynn very well. as you said, washington post indicated, his set of experiences coming into the job as the director of dia, we're quite deep and extensive. combat the command senior intelligence officer job, the j 2, as you said, the j 2 for joint special operations
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command, service was -- and yet another war zone and senior intelligence officer of the joint staff. and after that serving under jim clapper as the director of partner engagement for the dni. so he came into this job with impeccable credentials and what appeared to be quite a political environment surrounding him. so it's a mystery to many of us as to his behavior from the minute he left the agency. and interview. >> it is really hard and chris i've known him since he was also in afghanistan and i traveled
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there a lot because of previous work that i had. and, of course, i knew him when deputy secretary of defense and he was dia director. at the time, you know, having contacts and doing what he did going to russia and meeting with his counterpart, that in and of itself wasn't usual we were trying to have an open line of communication, we were still in that reset. but what's stunning to me is that he would take money from rt, from the russian government. he did tell people in washington and he clearly told people in the dia that he was going to russia to participate in that dinner and give a speech there. he must have known that that was going to be a problem. if you're getting paid by foreign government, which is seen as an adversary by that point, very clearly by the u.s. government, that's a problem. and i just wonder why he was warned then by the transition folks and probably many other people along the way. why did he persist.
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just doesn't make sense, was it humorous, or was it that he thought the president had his back any way. and what was he trying to achieve. >> well, dug, his dismissal from the defense intelligence agency, a lot of people have sort of pointed that out as a turning point that was really difficult for him. as he sort of went on, this sort of -- i don't know any other way to characterize it, what was your sense that he was insulted or crest fallen or angry by what happened to dia. >> in my interactions with mike before he departed, he seemed to be very even tempered. he didn't express any anger toward the under secretary of defense for intelligence. he didn't seem to manifest anything other than regret and not being able to finish out, you know, his three-year tour as the director of the agency. >> evelyn, there's been some back and forth today about the degree to which he was vetted or not vetted with essentially sean
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spicer and the white house casting blame for any possible -- any possible problems on the previous white house for having grant him security clearance. today jim clapper saying, actually, incoming security advisers have a much higher standard of vetting, is that your understanding of how things wo. >> yes, the are two processes, chris, first you have the security clearance. so can you be trused with the country's secrets, basically, that's something that's done by security professionals, the department of defense was responsible for that and we understand that general flynn had that renewed in january of 2015. once he became a candidate, then the white house office of personnel management, they should have asked him, first of all, to update his security clearance information so what countries did you have dealings with since january, you know, who were your friends and associates, where have you traveled, certainly his financial disclose sure forms, with e know he didn't complete
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them out, he would have been required to do that. then the fbi does a check on you. they look to see, have you broken any laws, you know, did you shop list. anything from shop listing, to you -- this is not fbi, but the political folks in the white house, did you publish any articles that might embarrass the white house. oftentimes they'll interview you, when is the last time you made a sex tape, kind of thing. so i think that he somehow escaped this vetting or they vetted him and they said, well we don't. >> still ahead, the kushner family business showcasing their proximity to the president in a pitch to wealthy chinese investors. plus trying to defend the thing one, thing two, next.
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thing one tonight republican congreman claimed that nobody dies because they don't have health insurance. >> people on medicaid, except dying. >> no one -- you know, that line is so indefensible. nobody dies because they don't have access to health care. >> if you're explaining to a parent that their two-year-old husband and the first thing they ask is, will she live. and the second thing they ask, is -- going insurance, absolutely kills people. >> in part one of my answers about health care wasn't very elegant in the five-second clip the media is focusing on i will explain that all hospitals are required by law to treat patients in need of emergency care. today they claimed, that notes
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citing a study, 45,000 deaths annually ruling to lack of coverage that uninsured have a 40% higher risk of dying than their insured counterparts. that talking point has been around for a while. republicans are trying a new strategy to defend trump care. lying about what the bill does, that's thing two, in 60 seconds. whaaaat?!ortgage offer from the bank today. you never just get one offer.
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go to lendingtree.com and shop multiple loan offers for free. free? yeah, could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. no. go to lendingtree.com for a new home loan or refinance. receive up to five free offers and choose the loan that's right for you. our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. rates could rise again. go to lendingtree.com right now. here is one clue that you sent a bad tweet. 450 people replied to it and just 54 like it. that tweet is from house majority whip defending trump care saying nobody charged more than anybody else. that's false. that is the complete inverse of
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i feel it every day. but at night, it's the last thing on my mind. for 10 years my tempur-pedic has adapted to my weight and shape, relieving pressure points from head to toe. so i sleep deeply but feel light. and wake up ready to perform. even with the weight of history on my shoulders. find your exclusive retailr at tempur-pedic.com
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renewables and new technologies. france is your nation. >> it's like a climate science foreign legion over there. she gained more support more than wanted marine le pen is the loser along with the trolls who supported her. president trump who all by endorsed le pen. congressman steve king tweeting about our shared civilization. there's russian president vladimir putin also meeting with le pen during the campaign hosting her at the kremlin. here's another loser in this picture. as well as the widespread last minute hacking of the macron campaign. since president trump's election, the right wing eth know nationalists across globe are 0 for 3 in australia, holland, now france. next up, why members of the kushner family business in china using jared's name and the president to sell visas to rich chinese investors and why reporters were kicked out of the event.
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saturday afternoon at the ritz-carlton hotel in beijing, nicole kushner meyer made a presentation to chinese investors. she's the sister of jared kushner. "new york times" reporter javier fernandez was there in the room. i asked kushner's sister whether $100 million in chinese investment posed a conflict of interest. leave us alone, she said.
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people from a chinese company that works with them surrounded me grabbed my shoulder. i was threatened and forced to delete recordings and photos of the kushner family recruiting chinese investors. why all the ruckus? meyer invoked her brother's service as chief executive of kushner companies to join the trump administration as they solicited 150 unfolds answer if kushner development in new jersey. the money would be provided the law much criticized government program known as eb 5 that awards foreign investments. the next day, sunday, kushner companies apologized in a statement in a statement that reads kushner companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was interpreted adds an attempt to lure investigators. the same day, kushner prohibits was in shanghai making another pitch at the four seasons hotel.
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security guards kept reporters outside the lobby. two presentations in two days, makes you wonder how many of these meetings have been made since donald trump' election. china correspondent of the "new york times." javier, wave delay. so i'll ask you what exactly was the scene there? what was the goal of the event that you attended? >> it was a very high-end event, no, i n't, attract the wealthest of chinese who are interested in getting green card to come to the u.s. we went to the ritz-carlton. it was a pubically-advertised event and listened to the pitch for investors about this new building. and the idea here is that if you invest a certain amount of money, you get a visa to the u.s.? that's the basic through it of it?
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>> that's right. it's $500,000, and that puts you on the path to a green card much for a lot of chinese, that's a popular idea. they want to escape the smog, poor education system, and so they're willing to put up that money. for investors they get a source of relatively cheap financing. there's a lot of interest right now. >> tell me about the connection in which jared kushner and the president, donald trump, were mentioned in the course of this pitch. >> jared kushner's sister, nicole mentioned her brother recently left as ceo and now serving in the trump administration. earlier in the presentation there was another pitch, a presentation, a slowed show that showed the presidency as a key decision maker on the eb 5 visa program. >> that seems to be key because the thing they're actually pitching is attached to federal immigration policy, that the existence of this visa.
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you're saying in the connection of the pitch they're saying very explicitly to investors this is donald trump sitting at the head of it? >> right. there's been a lot of criticism and talk of reform about the practice. some people suggested getting rid of it entirely. it's an important decision in the next six months whether they're going to renew this program or not. they were trying to reassure investors these were the key stakeholders and it's likely to be renewed, but we can assume it will be renewed. >> part of the reason they're doing these road shows is they're having trouble financing for the project, the bloomberg headline, they need this capital. that's why they're doing these road shows, is that correct?
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>> they've turned into this program this eb 5 program several time, and i think it's a popular way for them because as i mentioned, the investors here don't care about the return on investment. they're looking for green cards, access to a lot of money, $150 million in this case which is about 15% of the entire project. so we're talking about a very, very efficient way if you want to build something in new york, new jersey, these high-end markets, to get your funding and to get a lot of people involved. >> he broke the story, did a great job reporting it in beijing tonight. thank you for your time i really appreciate it. >> that story is remarkable. this is probably one of the most glaring incidentwe've seen so far of the potential for conflict. that is all in for this evenings.
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tonight, the dramatic testimony from sally yates who reveals what it was like letting the white house know their national security adviser was vulnerible to blackmail by the russians. while the former head of intelligence says russia is a threat to the foundation of our democracy. plus the news today that barack obama warned donald trump not to hire michael flynn as national security adviser but he was hired anyway. and why is the family of jared kushner apologizing after his sister tried to win over a business deal in china. over in the name of kushner. "the 11th hour" begins now. as we start a new week, good evening from our headquarters here in new york. day 109 of the trump administration. this afternoon we were live on air with what turned out to be a dramatic day in the u.s. senate. at the center of it, a 27 year veteran attorney general named sally yates.